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Coronavirus pandemic

Russian church urges clerics to ‘come to their senses’ and heed sanitary norms

During a recent sermon, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia called on believers to refrain from visiting churches until his special blessing due to the spread of coronavirus and pray at home

© Peter Kovalev/TASS

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MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. The Russian Orthodox Church hopes that those clerics who believe that taking precautions amid the coronavirus epidemic will undermine their parishioners’ faith will come to their senses, Vladimir Legoida, Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church's Relations with Society and Mass Media, told TASS on Tuesday.

"It is clear that the situation is complicated, and that people are worried. One may not agree with everything that this emotional upheaval results in, but the people’s dismay is understandable. <…> Today, we have to sacrifice, among other things, the rhythm of church services, which we are accustomed to and which we like. <…> As for the behavior of those whom the patriarch called ‘not very wise,’ we do hope that they will come to their senses, so to say," he noted.

During a recent sermon in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia called on believers to refrain from visiting churches until his special blessing due to the spread of coronavirus and pray at home. In his sermon, he castigated priests who reject preventive measures as not very wise people.

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